Reflections on personal effectiveness techniques and how I use them to turnaround software projects, business and achieve my own goals.

How to Rescue Failing Software Projects: Practical Proven Methods That Work

My book is finally available as an eBook, on Amazon Kindle and on Amazon. I wrote this book to share my experience in how to rescue failing software projects. When I was going through such a situation, I had no one to turn to. My hope is that the information in this book will be useful to those in similar situations. Although the information in the book pertains to software projects, I have come to realize that the techniques can be used in many other situations. I have personally used these techniques in business and technical projects.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Perception versus Realization

What is the difference between perception and realization? This subtle difference is very important to how we go about achieving our goals. Let me explain in more detail. The following explanation is my own opinion and observation.

We all know many things. We may have read books that teaches us certain concepts or techniques. In this case, we know content of the subject well. We understand the content well.

Realization is the experience we get after taking action based on this understanding. As we gain this experience, the knowledge we have becomes ingrained as part of our DNA, in our experiential base for us to draw upon when the time and need arises. It affects the way we think, it affects our belief system, it affects the way to do things.

For example, many of us would have read books or magazines about time management. We are able to expound the benefits and pitfalls of cetain techniques. Without practicing these techniques, we are simply walking libraries, able to quote benefits but unable to speak on the subject with much authority.

Actually practicing the techniques enable us to encounter the difficulties associated with the techniques. We may find that the technique in theory is simple, but to take action on it is difficult because of personal habits that inhibit us.

All this chalks up to learning experience. We become better after practice. When we speak on the subject, we are now able to speak with much authority as we have "been there and donen that", or "we walk the talk" and not simply "talk the talk".

This experience base makes us smarter and stronger as we are able to draw on our experience to help us when we encounter similar difficulties. The more small difficulties we encounter, the better and many of these experiences will help us in diffusing larger difficulties in times of need.

So, do not be afraid of difficulties. We can only get smarter with it. This is the difference between perception and realization.

Do you perceive this point or do you really realize it? Take action. I've written about several techniques. Pick one and practice. The simplest of all is to write things down. Look through my blog and you will find the entry for it.

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About me

Bernard Ong has been in the computer industry for over 23 years. He has held many roles, ranging from sales director to director of professional services, project director and manager, as well as technical architect and consultant.Bernard earned the SunRise achiever award from Sun Microsystems (Singapore) and the Outstanding Project Team award and High Achiever’s Award from Hewlett-Packard (Singapore). He was given the National Computer Board Award in Singapore and the Singapore Polytechnic Gold Medal for academic excellence. Bernard was a recipient of the Rank Xerox and Foreign & Commonwealth Office Scholarship for post-graduate studies at the University of Essex (U.K.), where he earned his Master of Science in Computer Studies/Artificial Intelligence.

Most recently, I was the Head of Professional Services, South Asia Pacific for a large MNC. Prior to that, I was the director of Sun Microsystem’s Software Professional Services for the Asia Pacific region. .

I am a very keen practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu as its concepts and techniques mirror real life effectiveness.